Bent to undergo Fulham medical

Darren Bent is expected to end his frustrating spell at Aston Villa today by signing a 12-month loan deal with Fulham.

Villa have spent most of the transfer window trying to secure a permanent £6 million sale of Bent, with Crystal Palace, Newcastle and Fulham all possible destinations.

Martin Jol appears to have won the contest with Bent expected to undergo a medical at Fulham today, after being given permission to move to Craven Cottage on a temporary basis.

Bent appeared set to join Crystal Palace late on Wednesday evening, with Ian Holloway confident of getting his man.

However Fulham have moved swiftly to head off all competition and have agreed to pay a loan fee in the region of £2m as well as picking up the tab for the majority of Bent's £65,000-a-week wages at Villa Park.

Bent's preferred destination had been St James' Park and according to sources close to the player there was a late request to Newcastle to see if director of football Joe Kinnear was prepared to enter the loan market to beat off his competitors.

He was the subject of a £4m bid from Fulham last month, which was rejected by Villa and Fulham refused to meet Villa's valuation of the striker, who cost them £24m from Sunderland in January 2011.

Bent has been desperate to bring a conclusion to a difficult last 12 months at Villa Park, where he has been sidelined under manager Lambert, largely due to the emergence of Christian Benteke.

He was also exiled from training with the first-team squad when he returned for pre-season and told he would not feature in Lambert's plans.

Bent wants to get back into Premier League action and reproduce the form he showed when he first moved to Villa to try to force his way back into the World Cup plans of England manager Roy Hodgson.

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